PEEP O' DAY BOYS 



PEINE FORTE ET DURE 



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mostly ancient and borrowed witticisms, represent- 

 ing Peele as a shifty and disreputable trickster and 

 vagabond haunter of taverns. His best work, The 

 Arraignment of Paris, a dramatic pastoral con- 

 taining some exquisite verse and ingenious Hat- 

 teries of Elizabeth, was published anonymously in 

 1584. Another pastoral play, The Hunting of 

 Cupid ( 1591 ), is lost. In 1585 he was employed to 

 write the Lord Mayor Dixfs Pageant, and in 1591 

 he prepared another for the mayoralty of Sir 

 William Weblie. His fine and spirited Farewell 

 to Sir John Norris in his expedition to Portugal in 

 1589 (eked out by A Tale of Troy) ; \iisEclogiie 

 Hi-iit'i/ntory (1589) to the Earl of Essex on his 

 return: his Polyhymnia (1590), on the retirement 

 of Sir Henry Lee from the office of queen's cham- 

 pion (closing with the exquisite song 'His golden 

 locks time hath to silver turn'd,' quoted in The 

 Ifetccomes); his Speeches for the reception of Queen 

 Elizabeth on her visit ( 1591 ) to Burghley at Theo- 

 balds ; and his Honour of the Garter, written on 

 the occasion of the investiture of the Earls of 

 Northumberland and Worcester (1593), are other 

 examples of the occasional poems that flowed from 

 his fluent pen, and helped him to make a shifty 

 living. 



The historical play of Edward I. (1593) has 

 dr-i'eiided in a very corrupt text, and is grievously 

 marred by its baseless slanders against the stain- 

 less Queen Eleanor, due to the anti-Spanish pre- 

 judice of the time. His tiombastic and ranting 

 play, The Buttle of Alcazar, was published anony- 

 mously in 1594, and was followed by another now 

 lost, which in the Merry Jests is named The 

 Turkish Maliomet and Hiren the Fair Greek. It is 

 doubtless this play that is alluded to in Pistol's 

 ' Have we not Hiren here?' His charming plav, 

 The Old Wives' Tale (1595), which most probably 

 gave Milton the subject for his Comut, is well 

 defended bv Mr Bullen from the contemptuous 

 criticisms of Symonds and Saintsbury. The latter, 

 however, finds much higher poetic merit in Iim-iil 

 ami Bethsabe (1599) than either Mr Bullen or 

 Charles Lamb. The last work assigned to Peele 

 is ,SYr ('lijumiiii nnd Sir C'lamydet (1599), but its 

 authorship is more than doubtful. 



Feele's works were first collected byDyce (2voU 1828; 

 2d ed. 1829 ; a supplementary 3d volnme in 1839 ). A care- 

 fully revised re-tone was published, together with Greene, 

 in 1861. The best edition is that by A. H. Bullen (2 Tola. 

 1888). See Ward's Eti<iHh Itrauiatie Literature (1875), 

 and J. A. Syinonds' Nhalaipere'i Predecessors ( 1884 ). 



Peep o' Day Boys, an Ulster Protestant 

 association ( 1 780-95 ). 



Peepul. ">r I'IPAL (Ficus religiosa), also known 

 as the SACKED Fin of India, and in Ceylon called 

 the BO-TRKK, a species of Fig (q. v. ), somewhat 

 resembling the Banyan, but the branches not root- 

 ing like those of that tree, and the leaves heart- 

 sliam-d with long attenuated points. The tree is 

 held sacred bv the Hindus, because Vishnu is said 

 to have l>een born under it. It is generally planted 

 near temples, ami religious devotees spend their 

 lives under its shade. It is also held sacred by the 

 Huddhist* of Ceylon (see BO-TREE). It attains a 

 great size and age. The peepul is often planted 

 near houses, and by the sides of walks, for the 

 sake of its grateful shade. The juice contains a 

 kiml of caoutchouc, and is used by women as 

 bandoline. Lac-insects feed upon this tree, and 

 much lac is obtained from it. The fruit is not 

 much larger than a grape, and although eatable 

 is not valued. 



Peerage. See NOBILITY, PARLIAMENT. 



Peewit. See LAI-WING. 



Peg'asus. in Creek Mythology, a winged horse 

 which arose with Chrysaor from the blood of the 



Gorgon Medusa, when she was slain by Perseus. 

 He is said to have received his name because he 

 first made his appearance beside the springs (pegai) 

 of Oceanus. He afterwards ascended . to heaven 

 to carry the thunder and lightning of Zeus. Some 

 later authors make him the horse of Eos. Bellero- 

 phon had in vain sought to catch Pegasus for bis 

 combat with the Chinuera, but at length was 

 advised by the seer Polyidus of Corinth- to sleep 

 in the temple of Minerva. The goddess appeared 

 to him in his sleep, and gave him a golden bridle 

 with which he caught him, and by his aid over- 

 came the Chima-ra. M<xlern writers ignorant of 

 mythology make Pegasus the horse of the Muses, 

 with whom, however, he had nothing to do beyond 

 having by a kick of his hoof made spring up the 

 inspiring fountain of Hippocrene. 



PegasiIS. a genus of small fishes of uncertain 

 affinities. The body is covered with bony plates, 



Sea-dragon ( Pegasus draconis ). 



the pectoral fins are broad and horizontal, the 

 upper part of the snout is prolonged beyond the 

 mouth, which is toothless. Four species are known : 

 P. draconis, from the Indian Ocean ; P. vulans, often 

 put inside Chinese insect-boxes ; P. natnns and P. 

 lancifer, from Chinese and Australian coasts. 



Pegmatite, a variety of Granite (q.v.). 



IVilll. a town, division, and river of Lower 

 Burma. The town stands on the river Pegu, 46 

 miles NE. of Rangoon. The old city was founded 

 in 573 and was made the capital of a powerful 

 independent kingdom. European travellers in the 

 16th century speak of its great size and magnifi- 

 cence. It was destroyed in the middle of the 

 18th century by Alompra ; but was rebuilt. A 

 celebrated pagoda still stands within part of the 

 old walls. The place was handed over to the 

 British by the inhabitants both in the first and the 

 second Burmese war. Pop. 10,762. The division 

 has an area of 9160 sq. m. and a pop. ( 1891 ) 

 of 1,456,489. The river rises in the Pegu Yoma 

 Mountains, and flows generally south for 180 miles, 

 joining the Rangoon or Hlaing River. 



Pelllevi, an ancient West-Iranian (Median and 

 Persian ) idiom, in use chiefly during the period of 

 the Sassanides (235-640 A.D.). See PERSIA, ZEND. 



Pei-llO, a river of China, rises near the borders 

 of Mongolia, flows north-east and south-east, past 

 Peking and Tien-tsin, and falls into the Gulf of 

 Pe-chi-li after a course of more than 350 miles. 

 The mouth of the river is defended by the powerful 

 forts of Taku (q.v.). See CHINA. 



Peine Forte et Dure, the ' strong and sore 

 torture,' a species of torture formerly applied by 

 the law of England to those who, on being 

 arraigned for felony, refused to plead, and stood 

 mute, or who were guilty of equivalent contumacy. 

 In the reign of Henry IV. it had become the 

 practice to load the offender with iron weights, 

 and thus press him to death ; and till nearly the 

 middle of the 18th century pressing to death in 

 this horrible manner was the regular and lawful 

 mode of punishing persons who stood mute on 

 their arraignment for felony. Latterly a practice 



